Austin comes to Dewey

A night in Dewey Beach always has the possibility of being a little odd, but Thursday night’s music line-up at venerable Rusty Rudder was a head-turner.

Out on the deck, Love Seed Mama Jump, the Godfather of the Delaware cover bands, was holding court as Dewey’s finest danced along to summer staples like The Cars’ “My Best Friend’s Girl” while slurping beer.

Inside, a much smaller crowd had gathered to see former bull-rider and up-and-coming country singer Ryan Bingham climb onto the Rudder’s smaller second stage to perform a searing, powerhouse 95-minute set of gritty Americana from underneath his ubiquitous cowboy hat.

It was just last week when Bingham had yet another national television appearance, singing his newest single, “Bread and Water,” on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

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Still, the chain-smoking, beer-drinking, shot-taking singer with major national buzz played second fiddle to Love Seed.

It was quite possibly the oddest concert scene in Delaware since 2004 when Bob Dylan sang “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” in Wilmington as bikini-topped Kahunaville waitresses walked amongst the crowd peddling shots of alcohol.

Even so, the peculiar evening actually made plenty of sense.

The money made by Rudder owners throughout the summer thanks to the massive crowds looking for danceable cover bands helps fund Rudder appearances by national acts like Bingham. Since there is no cover at the Rudder on Thursdays, Bingham’s performance was free with the Rudder’s owners picking up the tab. The night before, tickets to see Bingham’s sold-out show at Ram’s Head Tavern in Annapolis, Md., cost $23.50.

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After trying to snag Bingham for more than a year, Rudder booking agent Vikki Walls knew Bingham was on tour in the area with an open night. So Walls worked her magic, finding a spot for the singer/songwriter even though their largest stage was already booked.

The bizarre scene surrounding Bingham’s Delaware debut meant nothing once the 26-year-old from West Texas opened his mouth to sing the night’s first song, “Tell My Mother I Miss Her So,” a catchy would-be single from his still-untitled next album, due in January.

If his soul-searching songs didn’t immediately strike listeners as unique, one look at his feet would set him apart from most country singers. Bingham was wearing a white pair of Chuck Taylor’s to go with his well-worn blue jeans and jean shirt, which hung on his thin frame. His shirtsleeves were rolled-up, allowing a glimpse of the tattoos that run down his arms to his wrists.

Bingham’s set surprisingly included plenty of transcendental jams led by guitarist/mandolinist Corby Schaub, one-third of Bingham’s backing band, the Dead Horses.

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Schaub and Bingham also teamed up for a cutting slide guitar assault on “Bread and Water,” among others, proving themselves to be as much of a bluesy rock band as a country act — a sound that former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford helped create as producer of Bingham’s major label debut, “Mescalito.”

It was October when the gravel-voiced Bingham, whose front row of teeth are fake thanks to a rodeo accident at the hands of an Angus named Spanky, wowed fans of Americana music with the disc, which effortlessly pairs “Guitar Town”-era Steve Earle with the more traditional-leaning sounds that have emerged from the Americana musicmovement ever since the ’90s when pop and rock invaded the Nashville-based country scene.

Before closing his show of world-weary songs, the band sat back as Bingham, who left home in his teens and was sometimes homeless, sang the final verse of the autobiographical “Ever Wonder Why”: “I hope everybody had a real good time/I hope I didn’t bring you down/These ain’t sad songs/So don’t take ’em wrong/I haven’t been home in a while/Well, I’ll see you all around.”

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After the show, Bingham was outside catching yet another smoke. He said Thursday night’s show inside the Rudder as a cover band played on outside didn’t even rank among his odder gigs, saying he’d come back to Dewey Beach.

“If there’s five people who want to see me, I’ll be there,” he said, smiling, revealing that one of those fake teeth had been lost somewhere along the way to Dewey.

Just like the I-can’t-believe-it-happened-here Strokes concert at Rehoboth Beach’s Dogfish Head early in their career, it’s easy to envision Bingham’s concert as another that will be talked about for years by the lucky few who witnessed it as the young songwriter continues his march to fame.

Bingham left Dewey Beach this morning, drive up to Philadelphia and performed in Philadelphia for WXPN at World Cafe Live.